Day Eight: Monday Morning. 11/13/06 Magic Kingdom
Well, I was right about one thing. That late night candy didn’t keep Ed and me from falling asleep that night, not one little bit! In the morning I came out into the kitchen and found Aunt Rae already putting the water on for coffee and tea, so I went into the laundry room and put the clothes from last night’s wash into the dryer. Then I put in another load. We would be leaving tomorrow and I had almost forgotten about our
broken clothes dryer at home! I wanted to come home with as little dirty laundry as possible!
Ed returned from his run and reported that, even at that hour, it felt a bit humid outside. The Weather channel predicted another warm, sunny day so we donned tee shirts and shorts. Since it was our last full day, we decided to go out with a bang and wear our
red "Jersey" shirts one last time.
Our plan for our
Magic Kingdom morning was to do our favorites, plus anything we had not had the chance to do earlier. I was glad that it was warm b/c
Splash Mountain was definitely on the list for the kids and me! In our backpacks we carried extra shirts and I brought along two hand towels, as well!
Once more, we found ourselves arriving at the park just minutes after opening. One of these years, I vow, we WILL be one of those families that arrives bright and early to be the first ones at rope drop!
We decided to revisit a few of our favorites in
FantasyLand, and our first stop was
Winnie the Pooh! We followed the silly old bear through his colorful storybook and I congratulated myself for resisting the seemingly inescapable gift shop once more.
Next, we flew with
Peter Pan and then hopped across to
IASW for another whimsical trip around the world. So far, everything was practically a walk-on. Over Tricia’s objections (“Not again!”), we put on our
opera glasses one more time for
MP. (“Well, it’s Favorites Day and it’s Billy’s favorite!”) We made it up to her by letting her have another spin with Billy on
the Teacups before heading to
Mickey's ToonTown Fair, which we had yet to visit.
The first thing the kids wanted to do was
Goofy's Barnstormer. I hinted that they were perhaps getting too big for this kiddie coaster, but they clamored to go on so I agreed to go with them. Meanwhile, Ed and Aunt Rae bought some fruit at the little farmer’s market and sat down to wait for us.
The wait was about 10 minutes (for a 1- minute ride!) At least the barnyard props in the queue were really cute! When we were done, Tricia reluctantly admitted that she was, indeed, getting too old for this ride. Now that she and Billy are able to ride Space Mountain and R&RC, this will probably be our last time on the Barnstormer. Well… until I’m a grandmother, that is!
We sampled a bit of the fruit as we walked over to
Minnie's House, which was decorated for the holidays with pink and white lights. I wished we could see it at night! We toured Minnie’s house, taking lots of time to look at all the details. Minnie is really a very multi-talented mouse! Fortunately, it was not very crowded, so we could see everything we wanted. The house had little touches of Christmas everywhere, and we noted lots of presents for Mickey under her tree! We strolled through her garden and out the gate in the white picket fence with cute little heart cutouts.
Our next stop was
Mickey's House. Mickey had his tree up, too. We laughed at all the little sight gags, especially the mess that Goofy and Donald made in the kitchen! We took the path out into the garden and Tricia showed AR all the Mickey-shaped vegetables.
There was a bit of a wait for Mickey in the
Judge's Tent, but we had not really had the chance to see him as yet, so we decided to get in line. It wasn’t too bad. Vintage black and white Mickey cartoons were playing on a large screen and it helped to entertain the kids, both big and little, while we waited. The nice thing about this particular meet and greet is that each group is given a private audience with Mickey, so it’s worth it.
When our turn came,
Mickey gave us lots of hugs and we were able to take as many pictures as we wanted. The photopass photographer was taking pictures as well. If only Billy hadn’t become so character shy all of a sudden! Once again, all we had to do was explain to the character that Billy was autistic and the CM “inside” did his (or her!) very best to put Billy at ease and to help make it the best experience possible.
We said good-bye to Mickey and we mosey-ed on over to the
RR Station so we could catch the next train. We made a slow half-circle around to the other side of the park and enjoyed a scenic tour of Tomorrowland, the Main St. Station, and part of Adventureland before finally disembarking at the Frontierland Station. I would say that the entire journey took about 10-15 minutes.
Lively fiddle music greeted us as we walked across the platform and descended the wooden stairs to the red earth below. Walking into
FrontierLand always feels like you’ve wandered onto the set of a Hollywood Western! We still had a little time before lunch, so I took the kids over to
Big Thunder while Ed accompanied Aunt Rae on a paddleboat ride along the Rivers of America.
We made our way around the queue, through remnants of the old abandoned mining town. The last time we rode BTMRR, it was in the dark. Riding in the dark is pretty cool in its own way, but the daylight allowed us a better opportunity to see all of the amazing prop details.
We queued up into our little “stalls” and awaited the arrival of our train. Suddenly, a woman walking past said, “Oh, you’re on the DisBoards!” I whirled around. Someone had FINALLY noticed the large
LGMH tags that I had been wearing on my backpack for the entire week! One person in one whole week! And I didn’t even get to talk to her b/c she was being herded to the other end of the train. Oh, well! Better luck meeting DISers next time. I guess I should have been wearing lime green instead of red!
Tricia was excited for me, though. “Mommy that person is from The Dis, too!” She said it as though we were both visitors from a strange, far off land who happened to meet unexpectedly while traveling abroad. Perhaps it’s no small coincidence that the actual name of that paint color is Alien Green!
We held on tight as we rode the coaster through the Wild West. It was exhilarating, as usual, and I was impressed when I saw Tricia dare to lift both hands in the air on some of the turns! We would have gone again, but, it was time for lunch and I wanted to maintain our pattern of eating early to avoid the crowds.
Ed and Aunt Rae were waiting for us at the exit. AR had enjoyed the paddleboat ride very much. We walked toward the main street of the Old West town, only to discover that the
Woody's Cowboy Camp show was just ending. Oh no! I really wanted to see this show, especially since Billy really likes the Toy Story 2 characters. (At this point in time, the show was a brand-new live entertainment offering and the
Times Guide only listed show times as “Intermittently throughout the day.”) I don’t know if that has changed since then.
Billy called out, “Woody! Jessie!” but the characters were all waving good-bye and leaving the area, so he became upset. Aunt Rae sprung into action! Her special little boy was not going to miss the show if she could help it! She marched right up to one of the CM performers and asked him what time the next show would be given! “In about 45 minutes, Ma’m!” was the answer. Good work, Aunt Rae! We have just enough time for lunch at
Pecos Bill's before the next show!
Once again, we split the mealtime “chores”. Ed took Billy and AR to find a quiet table, while Tricia and I rustled up the grub. It took us a little while to find them; the seating area is as spread out as a cattle range! We found them at last and we settled in to eat.
Aunt Rae declared that if she ate one more chicken Caesar salad, she was going to start clucking! I suppose the surroundings gave her a hankering for some beef, because she chose a burger, minus the bun. (She can do that b/c she’s not allergic to gluten, just intolerant.) She’s been able to eat wonderfully at the TS restaurants, but CS has had a much narrower selection from which to choose. Fresh lettuce and tomato from the fixin’s bar rounded out her platter.
Ed had the BBQ pork sandwich, which he said was delicious. Tricia played it safe with a cheeseburger meal, while I was more than happy with a tasty chicken wrap sandwich.
The only one who we couldn’t find anything for was the Billy. There were no chicken fingers on the menu, just grilled chicken strips, which I knew my rigid eater would not even look at. I didn’t want to waste the CS credit, so he just shared fries from everyone’s meal and we got him a bottle of water. Oh well, there was food in the fridge at OKW if he was still hungry later. The meals all came with some juicy red grapes, which made a nice alternative to the fries. I tried to get Billy to eat some, but he just made a face and spat them out. It’s a good thing that young’un will eat his vitamins!
We needed to get done in time for Woody’s Cowboy Camp, so we tried our best not to linger over our food. Everyone was finished in about a half-hour, a speed-eating record for us on this trip!
(Sorry, Aunt Rae, I’ll be good!)
We ventured outdoors and squinted into the bright sunlight. We began to stake out a good viewing spot along the street.
The sun was high in the sky, so there wasn’t much shade to be found. We settled upon what seemed to be a good vantage point, but soon had to abandon it when a man began feeding french fries to several long-legged birds. That was not a good idea.
Soon a small flock gathered around and they began fighting for the food, flapping their expansive wings and squawking loudly. (“Mine! Mine! Mine!”) Billy became agitated and fearful, so we moved further down the street and stood anxiously awaiting the show while trying to reassure him that he was safe. Billy held on tight to his dad, furtively glancing back at the birds and staying on guard lest they try to flank him.
Billy has a bit of a history when it comes to the birds and french fries at the Magic Kingdom….
It was September of 2003, on our first WDW vacation. Tricia was seven and Billy was five. We had arrived at the MK rather late in the day on a Saturday and slowly made our our very first walk
up crowded Main Street toward the Castle. After the initial wave of awe and wonderment passed over us, we realized that it was dinnertime and our only lunch had been a turkey sandwich the size of a dinner roll that we had eaten hours ago on the plane.
We decided that
Casey's Corner was as good a place as any, so we found a little outdoor table and began to eat our hot dogs, gazing in absolute amazement at the Castle and trying to absorb the fact that we were really, really here at last! Billy was not as verbal as he is now, but he was certainly as rigid with his food. He was happily eating his fries while we were busy talking about the evening to come.
There were numerous birds around: some ducks, some seagulls, and some of those long-legged white birds (are they small cranes?), that were swimming in the water nearby and strutting around, in and about the little tables, looking for scraps of food. A sign, clearly posted, read:
Please Do Not Feed The Birds.
As if in a bad dream, I watched as a duck suddenly waddled up to where Billy was sitting, his hand dangling down with a french fry in his fingers, his attention momentarily drawn to something in the distance. He let out a blood-curdling scream as the duck
nipped the food out of his hand!
His scream, in turn, caused many of the surrounding birds to fly upward, wings flapping and making a general commotion, startling him even further.
Talk about the magic spell being broken!
It took us a long, long time to calm him down after that. And he has been afraid of any and all birds that come near him ever since, especially the birds at WDW.
The birds were momentarily forgotten as the announcer proclaimed that
Woody's Cowboy Camp would soon be rolling into town! Western music blared as a horse-drawn wagon led
Woody,
Jessie,
Bullseye, and a group of brightly costumed cowboys and cowgirls as they sang and danced their way up the street. They stopped right in front of us!
They sang a rousing greeting to the crowd, “Hey, Howdy, Hey!” and everyone clapped and cheered. We formed a large circle around the performers and the characters walked around for a moment, waving and giving high-fives. (Or in Bullseye’s case, high-hooves.)
The members of Woody’s two-steppin’ posse then went among the crowd looking for kids to help out with the next number, “She’ll Be Comin’ 'Round the Mountain.” Tricia and Billy were chosen, but Billy didn’t want to leave us, so only Tricia went over to the wagon with the others. We explained to the cowboy that Billy was autistic and might not be able to participate, anyway. He understood and said, “I’ll come back later, pardner!”
The younger kids were given hobby-horses and the older kids were given special prop
hats. Their job was to play the part of mountains and other obstacles for the little ones to ride around. Tricia was given the part of an old mine. We all sang along as the little ones rode their horses in and out between the older ones. It was really cute!
Naturally, all this was accompanied by a whole lot of stompin’ and whoopin’ and hollerin’ from the cowfolk.
When the song was done, the kids returned to their places and we were all introduced to a “newfangled dance” called the
Hokey-Pokey! Billy began jumping up and down excitedly. He knew the dance from school!
The same cowboy from before came back and started doing the Hokey-Pokey with us. Billy was laughing and dancing and having such an obviously good time that he attracted the attention of one of the pretty cowgirls. She came over and, surprise! Billy reached out to her and said, “Let’s dance!” She was able to keep him engaged and focused throughout the entire dance!
It was time for the troupe to leave. The cowboy and cowgirl praised Billy for doing such a good job with his cowboy dance. I told them that Billy really liked
Woody and had even dressed up as Woody for Halloween. When the cowboy heard that, he brought Woody over to say hello! Billy was thrilled and gave him a big hug!
Those CMs made that one little show such a wonderful experience for both the kids, but especially for Billy. Once they realized that he might not be able to participate in a group with the other children, they made it a point to seek him out and to include him in the fun. It became one of my favorite memories of the entire trip!
Having stood in the hot sun for a while, we were ready to sit somewhere cool and dark. We hadn’t been over to the
Enchanted Tiki Room yet, so we cut through the passageway from Frontierland into Adventureland and went to go visit with the Tiki Birds.
Billy skipped and pulled his daddy along as we approached the exotic looking building. There was a short wait and then the little pre-show with
Iago and
Zazu entertained us in the queue. When the doors opened, we filed inside and found seats on one of the middle benches.
As soon as the music started, Billy started laughing and flapping his arms wildly as all the colorful audioanimatronic birds and flowers began to sing. There is so much to look at in this show! He must have the song memorized, b/c he stood up and looked around expectantly just before Iago appeared to interrupt the song. When the obnoxious bird made his entrance in a big puff of smoke, Billy sat down, threw his head back, and laughed until,again, the tears came down his face!
We couldn’t help but walk out of there wearing smiles on our own!
There was time for one last attraction before we had to leave the MK, and we decided to go out with a Bang! Uh, I mean
Splash!
AR and Ed were definitely NOT interested in getting wet, so they took off to find some more of the sugared almonds while the kids and I walked quickly to the
Splash Mountain entrance.
Just as we were about to enter the FP queue with the GAC, Billy balked. “NO! Go with Daddy!” I was really puzzled. Billy had been on SM before and loved it. I reminded him about the big splash and sang some of the song to help him remember, but he still said, “No!” We moved to the side and I called Ed on the cell phone and asked him to come pick up Billy so Tricia and I could go by ourselves. He soon appeared, looking as puzzled as I was.
“Hey, Buddy, you love Splash. What’s the matter?”
“Go with Daddy”, he repeated. “Go with Daddy.”
We shrugged our shoulders; we just couldn’t figure it out.
Now, this left Tricia and me in a bit of a pickle. Without Billy we obviously couldn’t use the GAC, we would need to use the standby queue, which by this time of day would be at least 40 minutes. We didn’t have FPs and we didn’t have 40 minutes. When I suggested that there would not be time, Tricia became upset. She really wanted to do Splash.
When the tears began to flow, Ed told us to just hurry up and go. Even Grumpy didn’t want to end our last MK day on a sour note.
As the two of us began walking up the standby queue, the rest of the family turned to leave. Suddenly, Billy broke free and ran to us.
“I want Splash Mountain. Go with Mommy!”
What the…? Ed and I looked at each other.
“Billy, come here!” Ed said, taking him by the arm.
“No! No! Go with Mommy!”
“Fine, then go!” Ed said.
I took Billy by one hand and Tricia by the other and did a U-turn out of the standby queue and into the FP queue. The young CM who had witnessed this entire scene gave me a bemused look. Hey, kid, someday you’ll be a parent, I laughed silently.
We followed the winding queue until we reached the tail end of the line. Tricia was bouncing all around and talking a mile a minute as we inched closer to the loading area. There were no further protests from Billy, so we eagerly boarded our log and prepared to enjoy the ride.
The kids sat together and I sat behind them so I could keep my eye on the both of them. Just as we took off, Billy began to call softly, “Daddy! Daddy!” Oh no!
I’m one of those terrible parents who forced her child on a ride when he was afraid!
We emerged into the light and gently floated on our way. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a wave of water washed over us and we were completely drenched! The trip had barely begun and already we were soaked! We were in shock for a moment and then the entire log burst out in shrieks and laughter!
“We got wet”, Billy observed simply.
We settled back and began to gaze about us as the colorful characters from “Song of the South” cavorted along the river. My heart sunk as I heard a plaintive, “Daddy! Daddy!” coming from the front seat.
Tricia and I did our best to reassure him, but I felt completely helpless as I reached out and patted his shoulders and wondered why
all of a sudden he was acting afraid on a ride that he had always loved riding before…loved riding before…with his Daddy!
“Go with Daddy!”
He wasn’t afraid! He just wanted to go with Daddy on the ride! Ugh! I can’t believe that I missed that! He and Daddy always rode the big rides together, and this time it was different! He wasn’t supposed to be sitting with Tricia; in his mind he was supposed to be sitting with his daddy!
I was so focused on Billy that I hadn’t been paying much attention to
Brer Rabbit and his pursuers. The gentle part of the ride was over! We started up, up the incline and Billy excitedly began to call out, “Here comes the splash! Here comes the splash!” and suddenly we were hurtling toward the briar patch!!
I didn’t think we could get much wetter but, oh yes, we could! Laughing, we all climbed out and dripped our way through the gift shop and then outside to meet the others. They chuckled when they saw how wet we were.
Billy ran over to Ed. “Let’s do it again! Go with Daddy!” Too bad there wasn’t time, I would have enjoyed seeing him get drenched!
Tricia and I ducked into the ladies’ room to change into dry shirts while Ed took care of Billy’s. Our shorts were still wet, though, and I regretted not wearing ponchos like we had always done in the past!
We made our way back through Frontierland and stopped in
Liberty Square I wasn’t about to let Ed forget his promise that I could visit
Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe! He checked his watch and started to open his mouth when AR declared that she, too, wanted to have a look inside. Ha! We promised not to be too long, (double Ha!) and we went in with Tricia while Ed took Billy for a look at the
Liberty Bell replica.
We browsed for a while among the ornaments, trying to choose from among the many delightful offerings. I brought my treasures to the cashier and quickly filled out the ticket that was required for shipping items home. Tricia skipped outside to where Billy and Ed were seated on a bench and I went to help AR along. She got on the end of the short line and I went outside and sat with the others to wait. And wait. And wait!
“Perhaps she went out the wrong door and is looking for us on the other side”, I offered.
Ed just shook his head and frowned. Uh oh. “Why don’t you take Tricia over to the
Liberty Tree and let her count the lanterns?” I didn’t wait for the reply.
Instead, I went inside and discovered that a long line had built up at the cashier, and at the front of that line was AR, s-l-o-w-l-y and painstakingly filling the paperwork out in her tiny, perfect penmanship. Then she took out her wallet and s-l-o-w-l-y, deliberately, counted out exact change. Twice. The guests behind her sighed and shifted their baskets from one arm to the other. Some looked at their watches and others rolled their eyes.
The smart ones left to find another cashier!
I quietly backpedaled my way out the door. “It’ll just be another minute” I fibbed. “She’s paying right now.” We sat in silence until AR appeared, happily declaring that she had been able to find just the right sized ornaments for her new tabletop tree and doubly happy that she could have them shipped home. “They’re breakable, you know”, she added, knowingly.
We continued on our way. After a few paces, Ed whispered, “She had to fill out those forms, didn’t she?” he said. I nodded, “And she had to give exact change.” He shook his head and laughed. He was more than familiar with his aunt’s idiosyncrasies when it came to both her penmanship and her pennies.
We took one last, slow walk down
Main street, USA and I sighed heavily the whole way. This is always the worst part of leaving: saying good-bye to the Magic Kingdom.
In fact, I can never bring myself to turn my back on it and walk away. I always walk backwards so I can keep looking at it for as long as possible!
Tricia walked in front of me so that I wouldn’t bump into anyone unwittingly. She understands. Her father, as usual, thought I was nuts and just shook his head again. Still, in his own way he tried to make me feel better.
“Don’t be upset, you’re coming back in two months, remember?” he chided.
That was true. He and I were planning to come back for a quick weekend in January so he could run the half-marathon. So it wouldn’t be very long, really. Sigh.
The thought of that helped a bit, but it couldn’t completely remedy the nagging ache in my heart as we boarded the bus and rumbled off down the road. The spires of
the Castle slowly grew smaller, until we dipped under an overpass and they disappeared completely from view.
Kathy
Next Chapter: Mom gets “electrified” at 50”s PTC and we observe a Spectacle in the Street.
for your feedback; I really appreciate it! This report is probably a snoozer for most DISers, but I'm writing it mostly for the parents of kids like Billy and Trey...especially if they haven't been to WDW because they are afraid that their child will not do well there.
then I will be happy!
)
Naturally. 
(Okay, that's not a bear, its Chewy, but its the best I could do.) He must have felt even worse than I did. (Remember, his body was used to working through the night and then sleeping during the day.) I know he truly loves me 
b/c he dragged himself out of bed to take me back to my beloved MK; he would have liked nothing more that to roll over and go back to sleep!
Social stories were not working tonight.
in a gown and mobcap. So sweet and perky! She greeted each of us and posed for pictures. 
Pluto, who was very playful. Billy seemed more interested now. Pluto let Billy pat him and kiss his nose…which can be quite a maneuver around those big rubber whiskers of his!
Finally, at the urging of the two older kids, I decided to take a chance.
that we had gone off without telling him where we were going. It didn’t help that Billy was chanting “Mickey’s Philharmagic, please” over and over. That would get on anyone’s nerves after awhile. I apologized and tried to explain that I didn’t want his phone to start ringing in the HOP, so I thought I would wait until he and Billy were done with the show. 
the first time that we had to stand all week! (Except for Aunt Rae) We were all tired, but happy that we had such a great time. We got home by 11:30 and everyone went to bed.
would put him behind and, as it was, he still had homework to finish on the plane. “Where have the past two days gone?” I wondered as I watched him pack his carry-on bag.
Super CM!
I thanked the CMs profusely and then hurried off after them. 
so we all went next door to ride. Well, all of us except Aunt Rae (even though all three kids begged her.) She opted to sit in the shade and people-watch. It did appear to be somewhat less crowded today, but there were still lots of guests milling about for her viewing pleasure. 
We admired the 
The hour went by quickly and we soon were forced to accept the fact that it was time to go. 
The thought of Eddie missing his flight was giving him agita and he paced back and forth like a caged tiger. There was a line of taxicabs parked beyond the bus stop and he made a quick decision to grab one for himself and Eddie. There was one last round of 
and they were gone.
It was really nice to read about your travels through Epcot... I know so little about that park. Looking forward to more! Thank you for sharing your travels.
He squirmed and fidgeted as I held onto him to keep him from running away. Thankfully, Ed came along just in time! 
(Billy has asked for the SpectroMagic CD in the van almost every day since then; so I now know it by heart!)
